'They're made of printed circuit boards and can be flattened and stacked on top of each other on the way to their mission. Once they get to the location, they can pop back up and drive away.

'PUFFER's project manager Jaakko Karras conjured up its design back when he was experimenting with origami while working on robots at UC Berkeley's Biomimetic Millisystem Lab. The team replaced the paper he used in his design with printed circuit boards and then 3D printed wheels for the machine. PUFFER's latest set of wheels have treads and can inch forward one wheel at a time, so it can climb slopes. They can also fold over the robot's body if it needs to squeeze into a tiny opening.'